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Topic: CNC - What is it? (Read 3534 times)

Here are some websites with some good articles and links on what CNC is, so it's probably good for beginners or as a refresher course that might spawn some ideas. I think any information that can provides a basic education about CNC can be usefull and allow the reader to hopefully make better choices on what to do.

Some of the links below were mentioned by other members of the CerebralMeltown forums here, so thanks for those.

If anyone else has any basic links about CNC then they could post them in the replies. I tried not to give links for any specific machine or program, but only basic CNC concepts are of interest here. There must be a few more, and I guess anything specific or an in-depth analysis should be posted in a new topic or topic already posted. One thing about knowledge is that it's useless if it's not organized into a form, or if your just going to forget most of it eventually. If someone dies with any knowledge or wisdom still in their mind, then it could be lost forever and the wheel would actually have to be reinvented and it's a step back, so it needs to be shared. Many problems could have been solved if the knowledge was shared. Advancements are built on previous knowledge, technology breeds more discovery and more technology. In the end though, I guess the journey is actually the fun part.

Ok, that was some good basic CNC stuff. Looks like he designed a basic course in CNC, free. That site you mentioned is by Ivan Irons, and here is his YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ivanirons

From the looks of things, I guess you can use premade "patterns" of things to make with your CNC machine, otherwise you have to digitize the patterns, either automatically with a digitizing probe, camera, scanner, or manually. If manually, I guess it would help alot to know CAD (Computer Aided Design), and even drafting/drawing before that, in particular "mechanical drafting" where they like draw gears and machine parts. I guess there are a few people who can do both mechanical drafting and CNC. This CerebralMeltdown website here even considers how to make and control a CNC machine and other things.